Bengali film personalities have proved themselves pioneers in the field of entertainment. Bengali film personalities would comprise of the Bengali directors, Bengali actors, and actresses and, of course, Bengali music directors, lyricists and choreographers.
Bengali film directors
Some of the most brilliant directors are from Bengal. At the very beginning of the Indian cinema the people at its helm were primarily the Bengali film personalities. There are several directors from Bengali film industry who contributed very much in making the films memorable. As far as the Bengali film industry is concerned it has always been fortunate to include some of the most outstanding performers. Earlier Bengali directors like Pramathesh Chandra Barua, Nemai Ghosh, Hemen Gupta, Bimal Roy and others contributed in providing a concrete shape to the film industry. From then on numerous talented directors have made films for the masses as well for the classes. A new era of filmmaking ushered in the arrival of the likes of Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Tapan Sinha, Mrinal Sen and others. Directors like Aparna Sen, Sandip Ray, Goutam Ghose and Rituparno Ghose have enhanced the richness of Bengali film by including different type of subject matter. With them the group of Bengali actors who graced the film screens was undoubtedly talented.
Bengali Actors
Most of the Bengali films are male dominated. Actors have to do much to bear the responsibility of a film. The earlier actors were Chhabi Biswas, Bhanu Bandopadhay and Victor Banerjee, Ravi Ghosh, Soumitra Chatterjee and many others.
All of them were very intelligent actors. But the scenario altered with the appearance of Uttam Kumar. He was an unforgettable asset of Bengali Film Industry. He was endowed with the title Mahanayak by his fans. In later years Prasenjit evolved as versatile actor. While discussing the contemporary actors, the names of Dev and Jeet cannot be overlooked. They have succeeded in attracting the young people with their outstanding screen presence. The comic actors like Kanchan Mallick, Kharaj, Rudranil are also doing excellent job.
Bengali Actresses
Bengali film industry should boast upon its numerous beautiful, graceful, and talented actresses. Kanon Devi, Arundhuti Devi, Suchitra Sen, Deboshree Roy, Rituparna Sengupta have made their niches in this industry. Contemporary actresses like Koyel Mallick, Shuvashree, Shrabanti, Paoli and others are doing good work both in commercial and art films.
Bengali Music Directors
The music in Bengali films often reflected the melody that is an integral part of the Bengali culture. R.D. Burman, Salil Choudhury, Shyamal Mitra, Sudhin Dasgupta are to be remembered for their extraordinary creations. Hemonto Mukherjee`s "ei raat tomar amar ","ei path jadi na shes hoi", Shyamal Mitra`s "dole dodul dole" are loved by young generations also. Besides the regular music directors the classical musicians also have done much to enrich the Bengali film music. Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, Vilayat Khan and Bahadur Khan composed music for Bengali films. Jeet Ganguly has completely changed the temper of Bengali film music by composing different kind of songs which are liked by the Bengali youth.
Bengali Lyricists
Apart from them Atul Prasad, Jahar Mukherjee, Ajay Bhattacharya, Mukul Dutta, Sailen Roy, Rabindra Jain are some of the many lyricists in the Bengali film industry.
Bengali Choreographers
The idea of choreography is very new to Bengali cinema. Earlier actresses, like, Mamata Shankar, Tanushree Shankar composed their items for Bengali movie.